- Regional Park Facilities
- If you've never been to the regional parks in the East Bay, you should check these places out. Beautiful locations for weddings, and very cheap by Bay Area standards. The staff is very helpful. The only things you may not like are: you must use one of their approved caterers (see Alta Cuisine below) and there are very strict rules about candles, because of the fire danger.
- Patrick Roddie
- We found Patrick on The Knot, of all places, where he'd placed a little ad. We liked his photography, sent him e-mail, and two days later we had a photographer. I can't say enough good stuff about him. He was unobtrusive, got some really wonderful photos, and is a really great guy to know, as well as being a great photographer. Isn't that the best?
- i Wedding Bands
- Plain wedding bands are a commodity item: just a lump of metal formed in a very basic shape. So the price should be very close to the price of that metal on the market on the day you buy the ring. We went to local jewelers and found that they wanted to charge us a 500% markup from the commodity price. And they didn't feel like offering extra service for the money, either. So we gave up and went online. I Weddingband had good prices, cheap engraving ($7.50), and best of all, we had our rings in our hands three days later. Oh, and they were in these cute little red boxes. I am a sucker for packaging.
- Alta Cuisine
- Food was very important to us. We are both foodies, and our friends and family include many foodies, so we wanted really good food at the wedding. Alta delivered that, and they also handled the decorating for us. I just showed up with centerpieces and flowers, and they did the rest. Amazing. I can't say enough nice things about them.
- Atelier Des Modistes
- A school friend of mine pointed me to Atelier des Modistes when I was looking for a dressmaker, and I was very happy with the experience. It was very comforting to show up for my fittings and be treated like an old friend, rather than being squeezed in between seven other brides in a crowded salon alterations room. They're expensive, but you will get a beautiful dress that fits you perfectly.
- 2G Roses
- When my flower plans fell through a week before the wedding, I took a chance and placed an order with 2G Roses (aka freshroses.com). The flowers arrived two days before the wedding and were perfect, exactly as ordered. Keep in mind that this was in June. Wow.
- Paper Mart
- I ordered the boxes for our favours from Papermart, and was very happy with the quality and the speed of delivery. Definitely a place I will be ordering from in the future.
- The Knot
- People who hang out on The Knot are known as Knotties, and they are insane. The message boards are where you can get all your information, but be prepared for some very immature people.
- E-Z Wedding Planner
- An online wedding planner. Free.
- Bliss! Weddings
- Low on the content, high on advertising. I had a hard time finding much useful stuff here, but there was a little stuff there.
- Wedding Channel.com
- Our registries were here (Macy's had an exclusive deal with them) so I spent time here for that, but that's pretty much it.
- Indiebride
- For the independant-minded bride. Some people here get too preachy about the indy lifestyle, in the same way the the Knotties get preachy about what is "tacky" and what is not.
- RELATionship Evaluation
- How compatible are you?
- There Goes the Bride
- If you're thinking of calling it off, there are message boards here that may help you.
My Knot Bio
- Knot Profile URL
- Invitation Outlet
- Really unique and interesting invitations.
- clickInvites
- Basic wedding invitations, with nice choices for fonts.
- Wedding Traditions
- Your basic invitations.
- Cardstore.com
- Design your own cards.
- Jamie Lee
- Nice stationery and some good ideas for invitations.
- Create Your Own Wedding Ceremony
- Wedding Sparkles
- All kinds of shiny sparkly things to wear at your wedding. Prices are good, but the quality looks to be more drag queen than Audrey Hepburn.
- Jessica's Moment
- Lots of matched sets of colour-coordinated jewelry. Nothing really spectacular, but if you need to have your bridesmaids all wear the same jewelry this may be the place for you.
- Bridal Jewelry & Accessories Outlet
- Cheap jewelry. Limited selection.
- Perfect Details
- Really pretty stuff that can get a bit pricey. But definitely worth a browse.
- Tiaraworld
- Good selection of tiaras sorted out by price.
- NAUGI
- Pretty, semi-custom jewelry geared towards weddings.
- SpringDream Custom Jewelry
- Lovely semi-custom jewelry.
- Sussline
- Jewelry and accessories that lean towards the drag queen look.
- Princessbands
- Lovely jewelry. Very expensive.
- Johanna Forbes Designs
- I bought a hair comb that I ended up not wearing from Johanna. The craftsmanship was lovely, and I will keep the comb to wear some other time. Her prices was really low, considering what other places charge for the same things.
- GlamGal
- Witha name like GlamGal you might expect the drag queen comment to pop up, but actually there are many very nice pieces on this site. A HUGE selection.
- Eve's Circle
- Lovely semi-custom tiaras that turn into necklaces. This appear to be very in right now, probably because there are very few occasions for wearing a tiara after the wedding.
- Tigerlilly Tiaras
- A lovely selection of tiaras.
- Elemental Dream Day
- Um. OK. A little weird, but some really unique designs.
- Joy of Socks
- Funky tights, but not a huge selection.
- Clown Antics
- A web site for clowning supplies, which includes funky tights. And a whole page of noses. For a moment I considered how dead I would be if I started down the aisle wearing a big red nose.
Dresses
- Brideway
- Discount dresses. Limited selection
- BrideSave
- Discount dresses and stuff. Good selection
- BridePower
- Samples. Very limited selection but really huge discounts. Have your measurements ready, because things go FAST.
- Jennifer Serr Bridal
- Custom wedding dresses in Oakland, CA. She may not be answering the phone any time soon since she just had a baby.
- Dyeables
- A catalog of dyeable shoes.
- My Glass Slipper
- More wedding shoes.
- veilshop.com
- Everybody I know who has bought a veil from Veilshop has been very happy.
- Louise Verschueren
- Belgian lace veils. Order early, because they are custom-made in Belgium.
- Best Cameras
- Price includes developing.
- Weddingcameras.com
- Lots of styles.
- freeweddingcameras
- Low priced wedding cameras. Contrary to the name, they are not free.
- Flowerbud.com
- Online florist (real flowers). Great source for information on flower varieties.
- Annie and Co.
- Silk flowers. One of the more recommended sites from The Knot.
- Beautiful Bouquets
- Silk flowers.
- Budget Bride
- Silk flower bouquets and accessories.
- Eternal Bouquet
- Silk flowers.
- Silk Wedding Expressions
- Silk flowers.
- The Brides Bouquet.com
- Silk flowers.
- Clayvision
- Primitive Earth Beads
- Beadland
- Jewelry Supply.com
- Beadstore.com
- Ribbons Myth
- tsijeweltools.com
- Silver Charms Bonanza
- Sterling Trends
- Ab Fab
- Lovely cakes. Soo bad they're on the other side of the world.
- Cake Collection 1
- Some older styles of cakes.
- Butterfly Cakes
- Lovely cakes in the Bay Area.
- sweet dreams
- Nice site, interesting cakes, but totally fucking paranoid about their pictures being stolen. Dudes, here's a hint: it's still trivially easy to copy your photos.
- Blind Heart
- Interracial wedding cake toppers, if you insist upon the cake topper looking like you. Some of these are really lovely.
- Sugarcraft
- More of a cake decorating supplies site, but they have cake tops by Wilton.
- Some Kind of Store
- Speciality ceramic cake toppers for the more out-there wedding. They are pricey, but they will be exactly what you wanted.
- Tops The Cake
- Ordinary cake toppers.
- Glass Cake Tops
- Glass cake tops, for those of you who are really into those crystal animals and all that.
- Custom Cake Toppers
- Polymer-clay cake toppers. These were a bit much for me, but a lot of people are into them, and they do make a lasting piece of artwork.
- Jayne Williams Co.
- Your more ordinary cake toppers with a small amount of customization. Also, a really large collection of "hobbies and careers" cake toppers.
- Picture Perfect
- A large selection of ordinary cake toppers and some more unusual ones.
- Right Brain Creations
- The original polymer-clay wedding cake toppers.
- Party Favor Supply
- Some of the stuff they sell here is downright weird. But if you need some strange little thing to complete your favours, give it a try.
- Nuptial Knick-Knacks
- Assorted wedding crapola.
- Bridestuff
- Favours, cake toppers, and so on.
- Wedding Cake Decorating
- I recommend that you do not make your own cake, just because in the week before the wedding you should not be planning to be able to get anything done. But if you want to make one for a friend, here you go.
- Flower Bio
- Making your own bouquet, however, is super easy and takes only 15 minutes. Definitely worth doing yourself.
- Dollar Bill Roses
- You can use these instructions to make roses out of paper. Or if you want to give a weird gift, a bouquet of dollar bill roses might not be so awful.
- http--home.attbi.com-~knotties-
- A bunch of information about wedding planning from the Knotties.